Diphosphates
Level 3 — Contested
Diphosphates is a other additive listed in the FDA food-additive database.
Also: E450, sodium diphosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate
Where you'll see it
All Day Breakfast ready meals, Wall's sausages, frozen meals
What the research says
Stabilisers that 'hold everything together through the freezing process so the water doesn't end up in crystals on the surface' — i.e. they exist to make UPF survive industrial freeze-thaw cycles, not for any human-nutritional reason. Dinah's question 'Why are you eating diphosphates?' is the recurring motif of why these markers shouldn't be on dinner.
[ultra-processed-people] Stabilisers that 'hold everything together through the freezing process so the water doesn't end up in crystals on the surface' — i.e. they exist to make UPF survive industrial freeze-thaw cycles, not for any human-nutritional reason. Dinah's question 'Why are you eating diphosphates?' is the recurring motif of why these markers shouldn't be on dinner.
Regulatory status
- Notes: From enrichment source only, not in Winter Dictionary
Sources
- Ultra-Processed People (van Tulleken) — Chapter 9: How UPF hacks our brains: The diphosphate stabilisers hold everything together through the freezing process so the water doesn't end up in crystals on the surface